How to use Windows 10 without the Charms bar

How to use Windows 10 without the Charms bar

The Charms bar is excised in Windows 10. But the same commands are still accessible. Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET

Love it or hate it, the Charms bar appears to be history in Windows 10.

Released last week, the latest build of Windows 10 Technical Preview shows no sign of the Charms bar that first graced the stage in Windows 8. Appearing from the right side of the screen, the Charms bar gives you access to key settings as well as options to share, print and search from your current app. Though some Windows 8 users undoubtedly have grown to rely on the Charms bar, it likely just never caught on.

With the Charms bar gone in Windows 10, how do you perform the same actions and tasks that the bar provided? Very easily, it turns out. Here’s how:

One “charm” offered by the Charms bar in Windows 8 is for Settings. Clicking the Settings charm gives you access to several of the key settings in Windows as well as the full Settings screen.

To access the full Settings screen in Windows 8, you click the Charms bar and then click the Change PC Settings link. To access that screen in Windows 10, you click the Start button to display the new Start menu. Under Places, you click a link to the Settings screen, which incidentally sports a new look but offers the equivalent options and more.

And what of all the other options accessible from the Settings bar, such as Network, Volume, Notifications and Power? Most of those you’ll find in the System Tray in the lower right corner of the screen. The Power button is now in the Start menu, appearing in the upper right corner as a circle with a vertical line through it.

The Charms bar also offers access to Devices, Share and Search. Where will you now find those in Windows 10? Those functions are accessible from each individual Windows app. Here’s how to access them:

From the Start menu, click the All apps link and then open a Windows app, such as People or Mail.

Click the Options button at the top left of the screen. That’s the one with three horizontal lines. Up pops a menu with the same commands found in the Charms bar. You can run a search, share content or print an item. You can click the Settings command to open the Settings bar for that specific app. And you can click App Commands, which displays the App bar for that particular app.

So fans of the Charms bar — whoever you are — the bar itself is dead and buried in Windows 10. But Microsoft is keeping the bar’s functionality intact and, in many ways, making it easier to access.

About the author

Journalist, software trainer, and Web developer Lance Whitney writes columns and reviews for CNET, Computer Shopper, Microsoft TechNet, and other technology sites. His first book, “Windows 8 Five Minutes at a Time,” was published by Wiley & Sons in November 2012. See full bio …read more